Hi @Constance_Fang, @Fiona and the ChinesePod team, my question is this:
I see that in the expansion vocab of Newbie lesson ‘Months’ the character, 要, is defined as ‘to be going to.’
我八月要去北京
I’ve only ever used if for ‘to want…’.
when I looked up how to use 要 in the tools dictionary, the sample sentences don’t even include the character 要!
Now I’m very confused…How do I use 要 to say ‘I’m going to…’
Thanks!
It’s not that confusing if you just accept that it could be used in ways that you are unfamiliar with. If I come across something like this in a lesson, I just accept it for what it is and don’t try to understand it any deeper.
I don’t know why it’s used that way but I could guess based on the character 要 used in other words like 需要 or 一定要 or 必須要. It’s kind of like the character 會 that is used to mean know a skill or “will” or meeting or concert ie 音樂會 etc.
Best bet is to know that many characters and words can be used in ways in which may seem unintuitive for a non native. The sooner you are okay with that the better.
I personally don’t waste time thinking and asking these types of questions as I forget the answer as soon as the person finishes telling me “why”. But if I hear or read it used in context many times it sticks.
I remember seeing this
我對中國文化感興趣
and really being perplexed about the 對
Then later down the road I learned the word 對於 and it made more sense. I guess the point is understanding will come, in its own good time. It’s hard to force understanding.
Also I recommend using this online dictionary www.archchinese.com
It’s free and it’s good to cross reference dictionary’s, the more the better. The definition for 要 that Chinese pod provides isn’t even in this other dictionary for example.
要得 yes/will.
要得不？ will or won’t.
okay, If you know how to read chinese, I can teach you a lot.
我要去北京。 the translation is I want to go to Beijing.
我将要去北京。 Is I will go to Beijing.
If you want to say I am going to, you can say
我要去xxxxxxx。
such as:
我（将）要去洗澡。 I want to take a shower or I will take a shower.
If you have more questions you can ask me.
You could try this Qing Wen lesson, (plus the lesson comments)
Or you could listen to the most recent elementary (at 4 mins) where we touch upon 要…了.
and the grammar associated with that:
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Expressing_"about_to_happen"_with_"le"#.E8.A6.81.E2.8B.AF.E2.8B.AF.E4.BA.86_.28y.C3.A0o…_le.29_with_Verbs
Finally, you can read this grammar wiki:
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Expressing_"be_going_to"_with_"yao"